A brave new voice has emerged on the independent film scene. Meet Nazenet Habtezghi, a Black creative who’s carved out a niche for herself as a documentary filmmaker. Her latest project, where she serves as both director and producer, is “Birthing A Nation: The Resistance of Mary Gaffney” (MTV Documentary Films). It’s a story that takes the audience on an emotional rollercoaster as Habtezghi carefully unpacks the life of an enslaved woman who’s hellbent on preventing her enslavers from controlling her reproductive future. While the subject somewhat eerily mirrors some of the issues of agency that women are facing today, Habtezghi is able to keep the integrity of the era in which Mary Gaffney lived using testimonies from formally enslaved people. The film is only 19 minutes long, but each second grabs you in such a way that you’ll be thinking about Mary Gaffney many moments later.

The Brooklyn-based journalist-turned-filmmaker is a nurturing, compassionate storyteller who takes pride in disrupting the system. Habtezghi took her time to ensure she could frame Gaffney’s story in the most impactful way.

“It was important for me to say her name," said Habtezghi. “I like to say that Mary found me. I came across her testimony, and I was initially fixated on the part where she talked about chewing cotton root. I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?  The thing that you’re being forced to pick on the plantation is what you’re using to control your fertility,’" said the first-time director.

Gaffney’s audaciousness in defying her slave breeders is what makes her so badass and she wasn't the only one. There were others who also chewed on the cotton root as a "natural" contraceptive, exercising control of their own reproductive futures. “I was lost in that part of her testimony. It was just so incredible."

Habtezghi was working at Firelight Films, producing, researching, and developing a different project about the Transatlantic slave trade, when she came across the archival testimonies from the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a government work release program that provided 8.5 million jobs to Americans during the Great Depression in 1935. Most of what she discovered were detailed interviews with 2,300 formerly enslaved men and women.

“After reading buried testimonies of enslaved people, enslaved women, and enslavers talking about how they raped women, I was in this emotional space,” said Habtezghi.

She later explained how conversations with historians Dr. Jennifer L. Morgan and Dr. Daina Ramey Berry helped her gain a greater understanding of the relationship between Black women’s physical labor and their reproductive labor and how, when combined, they emphatically dictated and sustained slavery in America. Morgan and Berry, both of whom are featured in the film as experts on the enslaved, contend that breeding Black women became the pathway to wealth once the Transatlantic slave trade market was no longer an option.

“It fueled slavery and gave rise to capitalism in the United States," said Habtezghi. “Capitalism could not have existed if it wasn’t for Black women. It’s Mary’s story but it’s also the collective [story] right? It’s important to be rooted in her resistance but then become empowered by it.” 

When COVID-19 happened, the project was put on pause. As luck would have it, another opportunity presented itself through Firelight Films and MTV Documentary Films. They were looking for filmmakers to create short films that could speak to the forgotten or unknown parts of Black history. Habtezghi knew exactly what story she wanted to tell. It took almost two years to bring details of Mary Gaffney’s life to light. Now, the film has been nominated for a Black Reel Award in the "Outstanding Short Film" category.

Habtezghi’s connection to this story goes even deeper. Her emotions get the best of her as she describes her personal journey as a young girl, fleeing her home in the war-stricken African nation of Eritrea and migrating to the United States. She grew up in Dallas, Texas, and would graduate with a B.A. in Journalism from Oklahoma University. In time, she landed her dream job as an editor at ESSENCE magazine. 

Habtezghi has earned her bones by contributing to documentaries that have been featured on PBS, Netflix, and HBO. She co-directed The ABCs of Book Banning with esteemed documentarian Sheila Nevins for MTV Documentary Films. Nevins, who has produced hundreds of projects for HBO, is also a 32-time Emmy winner.

In her next project, Habtzghi is set to produce and direct “American Problems, Trans Solutions,” a docuseries in partnership with transgender activist Imara Jones. She has made quite an entrance in the documentary filmmaking arena with Mary Gaffney’s story, masterfully breathing life into a buried tale and giving a voice to an otherwise unknown Black woman whose secret defiance in the face of slavery deserves to be told.

“Birthing A Nation: The Resistance of Mary Gaffney” is currently streaming on Paramount+ and Apple TV.